Customer Reviews

Artscience: Creativity in the Post-Google Generation

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I picked up a copy of this book in the hopes that it would shed some light on the subject of human creativity. Its title and dust jacket seemed promising on this account. ArtScience claims to show how a vibrant middle ground exists between science and the arts today where creative individuals regularly make great innovations and solve interesting problems relevant to society at large.

Alas, this book does not live up to its promises. Instead, what we find is poor on information content and rich on uninteresting anecdotes about the author and his friends.

The useful information component of the book can be summarized as follows: 1) Some individuals trained as either artists or scientists made original contributions only after jumping the art/science divide. 2) Most institutions are resistant to innovation that takes inspiration from outside the institution's field of expertise. 3) Society might benefit more if institutional barriers could be lowered, allowing a greater cross-fertilization of ideas.

On the human side of the book, we are regaled with stories of the author's friend who is a doctor and hobbyist photographer and another friend who is an architect and expert skier. Somehow the story of these individuals whose outside interests are widely removed from their professional careers is supposed to express a profound fusion of arts and science into something creative and highly original. All in all,
we read about some people, good at their jobs and making use of other talents not called for in their main line of work. Apart from the fact that these individuals mostly hail from an academic environment, they are no more innovative than a small business owner who spends his free time fly fishing.

I'm sorry that this review comes across as harsh as it does. This book is neither insightful nor interesting to read. Near the end of the book, the author explains clearly why the work is flawed: he states that he writes for himself and not for others. So if you were hoping to learn something about creativity or human activity in the borderlands of art and science, you would be better served looking elsewhere.

I did not understand what the previous negative review was really about until I went ahead and read this book. In summary, the book is an excellent introduction to the concept of bridging a gap among different academic, industrial, social and cultural disciplines as a means of creating ideas with high impact and translating them for public.

'Artscientist' may be a misleading term - it really refers to innovators who make our world a better place. The author articulates using a lot of real-life examples that sources of inspiration for artscientists are not restricted to their 'area of expertise' but can come from outside - if one is a scientist, inspiration can come from arts or vice versa. The author hits the right spot claiming that the process of interdisciplinary idea translation is not encouraged by our society that has been in large part institutionalized and specialized. In the last part of the book, he introduces his own work to create a framework that encourages idea translation process for motivated students and scholars. In fact, it is this creative process that is defined as 'artscience'. Therefore, the book is not really about arts vs sciences and how people who have a 'dual taste' are likely to be more creative than others as the previous negative review states.

There seems to be no black and white way to enhance one's creativity. Translation between arts and sciences may not 'guarantee' conception of high impact ideas but as the author states, it is the process of translation - whether this crosses between art and science or just between subdivisions of a given umbrella discipline - that will allow one to refine ideas that may one day become influential.

This book is a great primer for a person who is seriously considering about becoming a problem solver with a bird-eye view of the world we live in.

The first reviewer represents the reverse of academic elitism, and, while entitled to his views of the book, does other potential readers a disservice. As both a former academic who was part of a team establishing an interdisciplinary university, and an entrepreneur, I found the book refreshing and a great help in getting others to understand the importance of being open to interdisciplinary work and experiences. I highly recommend the book...it is through stories that new ideas can grow. (And snide comments are not needed for intelligent reviews.)